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Quotes from Shakespeare

Please click on the links below to see collections of Shakespeare's quotations by play and theme and some fascinating facts and commentary.

 Shakespeare on Anger
 Shakespeare on Envy
 Shakespeare on Fate
 Shakespeare on Fathers
 Shakespeare on Flowers

 Shakespeare on Friendship
 Shakespeare on Gluttony
 Shakespeare on Greed
 Shakespeare on Horses
 Shakespeare on Jealousy

 Shakespeare on Lawyers
 Shakespeare on Lust
 Shakespeare on Marriage
 Shakespeare's Metaphors

 Shakespeare on Music
 Shakespeare on Old Age
 Shakespeare on Omens
 Shakespeare on Poverty
 Shakespeare on Pride

 Shakespeare on Revenge
 Shakespeare on the Seasons
 Shakespeare on Sleep
 Shakespeare on Sloth

 Shakespeare's Songs
 Shakespeare on Swans
 Shakespeare Wedding Readings

 Scary Shakespeare
 Shakespearean Insults
 Shakespeare Quotes on Cain and Abel
 Quotations About Shakespeare

 Antony and Cleopatra
 Coriolanus
 Hamlet
 Julius Caesar
 King Lear
 Macbeth
 Othello
 Romeo and Juliet
 Timon of Athens
 Titus Andronicus

 Henry IV, Part I
 Henry IV, Part II
 Henry V
 Henry VI, Part I
 Henry VI, Part II
 Henry VI, Part III
 Henry VIII
 King John
 Richard II
 Richard III

 All's Well That Ends Well
 As You Like It
 The Comedy of Errors
 Cymbeline
 Love's Labours Lost
 Measure for Measure
 The Merry Wives of Windsor
 The Merchant of Venice
 A Midsummer Night's Dream
 Much Ado About Nothing
 The Taming of the Shrew
 The Tempest
 Twelfth Night
 Two Gentlemen of Verona

In the Spotlight

Featured Quotation

Lady Macbeth from the Sisterhood Gallery.I have begun to plant thee, and will labour
To make thee full of growing.
                   Macbeth (1.4), Duncan

For reasons both dramatic and political, Shakespeare had to make notable changes to the historical Duncan. The real King Duncan, according to Shakespeare's sources, was your regular nasty warlord; nastier, it appears, than the actual historical Macbeth. If Shakespeare's Macbeth planned to kill this Duncan he would be justified, and hence there would be no play. So Duncan morphs into a delightful and much beloved ruler, kind to the point of annoyance. With his 'silver skin' and 'golden blood' (2.3.97), Shakespeare's Duncan epitomizes the perfect ruler. Read on...

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